Chapter 33
He Said

For once, one of Shepard's plans went smoothly. For a little while, at least. The thief and the assassin proved to be excellent infiltrators. When we finally docked at the station, Avery's team split up in a professional and orderly fashion, belying their previously combative ways. I waited patiently, watching how she seemed to draw every eye to her without speaking. She had their undivided attention. But she didn't say anything. She just nodded once and they scattered. Vakarian led Dr. Solus and Jack away to set up their distractions. Lawson, Tali, and the Justicar went to do their best to sabotage every system except life support on the station. Taylor took Grunt and Massani with him to rendezvous with Thane to clear a path to the docking bay that held the Normandy. Joker stood nervously with us, his fingers tracing the line of Shepard's Omni-Tool still wrapped around his wrist. The assault rifle strapped to his back looked a bit odd to me, but then, seeing him off a ship and away from the pilot's chair after so long was just plain odd anyway. The geth they called Legion turned its headlamp in my direction and raised its flaps. "Shepard-Commander, we find the likelihood of The Normandy being docked on the stern side of the station highly probable. The station would need to keep its balance to maintain it's gravitational rotation and there is another ship docked forward of our position."

"Thank you, Legion. I don't suppose you've gotten the layout of the station already?" So that's why she brought it with us. I tried to think of the sentient robot as a person, not a thing. It was proving to be a bit difficult.

"Affirmative, Shepard-Commander. We need to access lift number 326-3827, located in the 'yellow corridor.'" I didn't think it was possible for the AI to have an emotion, but the geth's voice actually sounded puzzled at why someone would name a corridor "yellow."

Avery nodded. "Lead the way, please, Legion." She glanced at Joker who was nervously fiddling with the slim silver band on his wrist. "You good to go?"

Startled, Joker quickly straightened up from the wall and nearly stood at attention. "Yeah. Let's go."

Shepard jerked her head for me to precede her behind the geth. I drew my pistol and followed the machine, attempting to put aside the mixed revulsion and awe I felt looking at it. It's just another alien, I reminded myself. You just don't know if it's a saint or a sinner, yet. Avery touched my arm, her mouth twisting up in an amused smile. My lips quirked in an amused half-grin. She always seemed to know what I was thinking.

We moved quietly through the stark, white hallways, the decking under our feet giving away our footfalls no matter how stealthy we tried to be. Joker's uneven footsteps made me wonder if he was feeling any pain from his upgrades, but when I looked back at him, his bearded jawline was merely set in determination. I shrugged mentally. He'd speak up if he had problems. I was certain of that from our years as friends.

The one thing I wasn't sure of was how I was going to save Avery from herself.

The comms chatter picked up, Vakarian encouraging his team, Taylor meeting up with Krios. Legion held up his (its?) hand in the gesture to stop and I passed along the message. Shepard stopped so close to me, I imagined I could feel her breath on my neck. Which was ridiculous, as we were both wearing armor Apparently, the back of my mind hadn't given up hope of another chair-sharing incident.

Turning a corner, we finally encountered guards. Avery stepped around me and set off a Singularity with an efficiency that still surprised me even after all this time. Joker stepped back around the corner, out of the line of fire and the geth took cover behind some nearby crates where it lined up shots with its sniper rifle. I ducked around Avery, using the geth's firing pattern as cover to advance to the next set of crates. Blue uniforms, white circle... Blue Suns. I was really getting tired of them.

The resonance of her biotics warned me of her approach and I hit one of the closer mercs with a Warp field to distract him from shooting at her. She threw herself down next to me just as reinforcements arrived for the other side. For once, I was grateful the Blue Suns seemed to have a prejudice against biotics. Made our jobs easier. I threw another Warp field just as Avery twisted her wrist and the dissonant surge of the ability she called Reave hit the woman next to the merc I'd just hit. Her screams overrode his in volume until Legion put a bullet through both their heads.

Then, Avery did something I didn't expect. And wasn't entirely sane. She pulled out the massive sniper rifle she'd been carrying - I thought it was a back up for one of her other snipers, you never know when you need another gun, I guess - and peered through the scope. She took hits on her barrier and shields, but lined up perfect headshots, seeming to compete with the geth. According to my HUD, though, her sheilds were becoming rapidly degraded. I was about to reach out and pull her back down behind cover when movement out of the corner of my eye caught my attention.

A turian in the ubiqutious blue armor was creeping around the snipers to take them out. He shimmered out of sight after engaging his cloak. The problem with the cloaking technology was that it wasn't perfected. There was still a tell-tale shimmer of energy around the person being cloaked if you knew what to look for. I aimed my mnemonic for that shimmer and was running in a crouch toward the enemy before I'd finished the gesture. The turian stopped in his tracks, startled as his cloak shorted out, the field dissipating in a storm of electrical sparks arcing over his armor. He looked up in time to see me coming at him and I fired my pistol at his unarmored head, forcing him to duck before he could shoot me. "Kaidan! Where the hell are you going?" Avery's voice shouted from behind me. And then, "Look behind you!"

I'd been so fixated on the turian ahead of me, I missed his fellow human infiltrator, cloaked as well. Without thinking, I reached out and punched the human in the jaw with my armored fist and on the follow-through, shot the turian in the head. I spun back to the human to find his gun up and aimed at my gut, but I hit it so the shot went wide. He dropped the assault rifle, the impact of my fist causing his arm to go numb. The other Blue Suns noticed my fight with one of their own and my shields began to scream in depletion as they aimed their fire at me. The Blue Sun got in a lucky shot with a right hook as I gathered myself for another mnemonic. The hit knocked me off balance a bit so I brought my pistol back up to fire at him as I pressed the quick command for a neural shock on my 'Tool and the guy staggered backward, clutching his head. My shields screamed a warning at me. "Kaidan get down!" Avery's voice. I ignored it. I had time before they failed to finish this asshole off. I fired my pistol, emptying the heatsink into the guy's head. I dropped down to the ground behind a crate, trying to catch my breath as the medigel pumped through my system and my shields regenerated.

"Shepard-Commander!" "Shepard!" Joker's voice. I looked over the side of the crate to find Avery on her knees, maintaining a biotic shield wide enough to cover herself and the crates I'd collapsed behind, the field deflecting the bullets that would have made my day a lot more interesting.

And it was failing. And her own shields were low.

Her arms were out stretched as far as they'd reach, fingers splayed. I wondered where the hell she'd learned this as I stood up, prepared to tackle her back into cover. Her shoulders tensed. Her arms flexed. The dissonant hum in the back of my teeth increased exponentially and she gathered her strength and pushed. I watched, astonished, as she flung the extended barrier forward, her upper body moving with it. The shield held together long enough to sweep a few Blue Suns with it like a giant shovel and flatten them against the far wall. Legion finished off the the few that hadn't been caught by her field. Avery collapsed to her knees, panting. I flung myself at her and grabbed her around the waist to drag her behind a nearby low wall.

"What the hell was that, Avery?"

She coughed and wiped at her nose. Her blue glove came away spotted with blood. I felt my stomach twist. That was never a good sign. Not in a biotic as accomplished as she was. "A little trick I learned from an asari Justicar. I uh, added that bit at the end though. She'd warned me not to do it. But I did it anyway."

I'd never felt so angry at her in my life, not even on Horizon. I wanted to shake her, I wanted to scream at her in frustration. "You endangered yourself and your mission for absolutely no reason. I was safe, Avery. I was done and under cover. You didn't need to do that."

"Yes. I did! Your shields were gone and you were bleeding to death." Her blue eyes glared up at me. I felt my anger falter just a little until I remembered how close to death she herself had been. Not to mention whatever damage she'd just done to herself.

I stared at her for a moment. There had never been even one second in that fight where I thought I'd die. And it wasn't from arrogance. Yeah, I'd cut it close, but I'd done my job and hadn't hesitated and kept threats off the snipers' six. I hadn't been in danger. Was she that blinded over fear of losing me that she couldn't trust me to see that? Or did she just so desperately need to save everyone that I was no exception?

The klaxon sounded, bouncing off the flame-tinged bulkheads, light chiaroscuro with overloaded circuits exploding. The feel of her hardsuit under my hands. "Kaidan. Go. Now."

I couldn't save her. Not then. Not now. And not from herself. Only Shepard could save herself, I just hoped she opened her eyes before she walked over the cliff and fell into the abyss before her.

"Joker's wrong. I can't convince you there are prices too high to pay for this. That there has to be another way to save everyone besides another suicide a mission into hell." I stood up, even focused on her, I'd caught the geth's signal for the all clear. "We'll get your ship back. Then I have a meeting with Hackett."

She climbed to her feet, no, don't look at those eyes, dammit. She cleared her throat. "I can't convince you to stay with us. I mean, me?"

"I'm not watching you commit suicide, Avery." I looked at Joker as he walked past, shaking his head. "I'll fight to my last breath, but they'll kill me. I refuse to do it for them. And I'll be damned if you die protecting me. Again." I turned on my heel to follow the geth's lead toward Shepard's ship. I felt like I'd just ripped my own heart out of my chest and threw it out an airlock. I glanced back once to see Avery staring straight ahead, her Commander Shepard mask on, her own blood smeared across her face.

Yep, it was definitely freezing over.